The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution

Edited by Pablo Cortés

Examines the impact of new EU law in the field of consumer redress

Analyses the implementation of the ADR Directive in nine Member States with different legal cultures in consumer redress, including Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the UK

Looks beyond the EU to consider US approaches to consumer redress

Evaluates new trends in consumer ADR by identifying best practices and looking at future trends in the field

The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution

Edited by Pablo Cortés

Description

Consumer out-of-court redress in the European Union is experiencing a significant transformation; indeed the current changes are the most important that have occurred in the history of the EU. This is due to the recent implementation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive 2013/11/EU and the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Regulation (EU) 2013/524. The Directive ensures the availability of quality ADR schemes and sets information obligations on businesses, and the Regulation enables the resolution of consumer disputes through a pan European ODR platform.

The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution examines the impact of the new EU law in the field of consumer redress. Part I of the volume examines the new European legal framework and the main methods of consumer redress, including mediation, arbitration, and ombudsman schemes. Part II analyses the implementation of the ADR Directive in nine Member States with very different legal cultures in consumer redress, namely: Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as the distinct approach taken in the US. Part III evaluates new trends in consumer ADR (CDR) by identifying best practices and looking at future trends in the field. In particular, it offers a vision of the future of CDR which is more than a mere dispute resolution tool, it poses a model on dispute system design for CDR, it examines the challenges of cross-border disputes, it proposes a strategy to promote mediation, and it identifies good practices of CDR and collective redress. The book concludes by calling for the mandatory participation of traders in CDR.

The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution

Edited by Pablo Cortés

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I 1: The New Landscape of Consumer Redress: The European Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Regulation on Online Dispute Resolution, PABLO CORTÉS 2: Developments in European Civil Procedures, PABLO CORTÉS & RAFAL MANKO 3: The Consumer Arbitration Conundrum: A Matter of Statutory Interpretation or Time for Reform?, PABLO CORTÉS 4: Access to court? SUE PRINCE 5: Ombudsman Schemes - Energy Sector in Germany, France, and the UK, NAOMI CREUTZFELDT 6: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in Belgium, STEFAAN VOET 7: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in France, EMMANUEL GUINCHARD 8: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in Germany, ROSA MIQUEL 9: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive and the ODR Regulation in Ireland, BRIAN HUTCHINSON 10: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in Italy, CARLO PILIA, PABLO CORTÉS, PAOLO VARGIU 11: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in the Netherlands, ELINE VERHAGE 12: The Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in Portugal: The Necessary Reform or Missed Opportunity?, CÁTIA MARQUES CEBOLA 13: Challenges for the Implementation of the Consumer ADR Directive in Spain, FERNANDO ESTEBAN DE LA ROSA 14: Regulating ADR: Lessons from the UK, RICHARD KIRKHAM 15: Consumer Redress in the United States, AMY J. SCHMITZ 16: Consumer Redress: Implementing the Vision, CHRISTOPHER HODGES 17: A Dispute System Design Perspective on the Future Development of Consumer Dispute Resolution, JANE WILLIAMS AND CHRIS GILL 18: "Cross-border Consumer Redress after the ADR Directive and the ODR Regulation", GUILLERMO PALAO MORENO 19: New Trends of ADR in the European Union, GIUSEPPE DE PALO AND ROMINA CANESSA 20: Consumer ADR and Collective Redress, COSMO GRAHAM Conclusion, PABLO CORTÉS

The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution

Edited by Pablo Cortés

Author Information

Edited by Pablo Cortés, Professor of Civil Justice, University of Leicester School of Law

Pablo Cortés is Chair in Civil Justice at the University of Leicester. He conducts research in the field of consumer law, civil procedure, ADR, and ODR. He has advised the European Commission during the drafting of the ODR Regulation and ADR Directive and has been invited to write reports and to participate in expert meetings by the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL Working Group-III ODR), the European Commission Directorate-General for Health & Consumers (DG SANCO) and Justice (DG JUST) as well as by the European Parliament Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), and the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI). Pablo serves on the advisory board of NetNeutrals and Youstice. He is a fellow of the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolutions (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and in 2012 he was a Gould Research Fellow at Stanford University.

Contributors:

Romina Canessa is an International Project and Legal Consultant at the ADR Center

Cátia Marques Cebola is Associate Professor at the School of Technology and Management of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (ESTG-IPLeiria) and Director of the Research Centre on Legal Studies (CIEJ) in Portugal

Pablo Cortés is Professor of Civil Justice at the Leicester Law School, University of Leicester

Naomi Creutzfeldt is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and a Research Fellow of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford

Fernando Esteban de la Rosa is Professor of Private International Law at the University of Granada

Giuseppe de Palo is cofounder and former Chairman of the Board of the ADR Center.

Chris Gill is a Lecturer at Queen Margaret University

Cosmo Graham is a Professor at the Leicester Law School, University of LeicesterEmmanuel Guinchard is Senior Lecturer at the University of Northumbria School of Law

Christopher Hodges is Professor of Justice Systems and Fellow of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford

Brian Hutchinson is Associate Professor at the UCD Sutherland School of Law, University College DublinRichard Kirkham is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Sheffield

Rafa? Ma?ko is a Policy Analyst at the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) in Brussels and an External Fellow at the Centre for the Study of European Contract Law at University of Amsterdam

Rosa Miquel is a Research Associate at the University of Bayreuth

Guillermo Palao Moreno is Professor of Private International Law at the University of Valencia

Carlo Pilia is Professor of Law at the Department of Jurisprudence, University of Cagliari

Sue Prince is an Associate Professor in Law at the University of Exeter Law School

Amy J. Schmitz is the Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at University of Missouri Law School

Paolo Vargiu is a Lecturer at Leicester Law School, University of Leicester

Eline Verhage is a PhD Fellow in the field of Consumer Dispute Resolution in the Netherlands and a Junior Lecturer in Civil Procedural Law at Leiden University

Stefaan Voet is Professor of Law at KU Leuven, Host Professor at the University of Hasselt, and a Programme Associate on Civil Justice Systems at the University of Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies

Jane Williams is a Lecturer at Queen Margaret University

The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution

Edited by Pablo Cortés

Reviews and Awards

"...Arbitrators, mediators and yes, lawyers will find this book not only an absorbing and enlightening read, but a useful and certainly voluminous source of references for further research." - Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor, Richmond Green Chambers